


The Promises of Lost Sunsets

by Clip_Lipstick



Series: Sunsets and Promises [2]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 10:41:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14809817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clip_Lipstick/pseuds/Clip_Lipstick
Summary: Jeonghan's life was full of miseries and events and things gone horribly wrong. Seungcheol was just one of them.





	The Promises of Lost Sunsets

**Author's Note:**

> I know it has been a long time since I have posted the rough prologue to this story through the eyes of Seungcheol. This time, it is through the POV of Jeonghan. I at first thought of making this a simple one-shot but somehow the plotline and the word-limit got out of hand and before I knew it, it became a multi-chapter thing. It is my first time doing a multi-chapter story and I am very much anxious and excited. I hope all of you like the story and stick with me till the end. Also, i want to thank Kakashis_Library and wonwooimnida who reviewed and left their kind words and all the others who left their kudos on the last chapter of this series. I also want to thank all those who reviewed and kudoed my other work. It really encourages me and means a lot. Anyways, I know it is a long note but I really felt that I had to get some things cleared up before I began. Comments and love are always welcome. Now on with the story...

“It was never an option of whether he was accepted or not. It was when…”. 

“Yeah, you could clearly see that the young master was enamoured by that chit. It was too sad that she died while giving birth and before the young master could get the consent for marriage…”

“He is just a splitting image of his mother. But then she was a beauty and no wonder she was called the village belle. And was she proud of her beauty. I swear that those huge brown eyes looking back at me sometimes eerily remind me of that insolent chit…”

The voices hushed as footsteps echoed down the corridor. I froze against my post at the door before slowly tip-toeing across the room and climbing into the four poster bed with the help of the small stairs at the side. As I pulled the covers over myself and listened with bated breath, the shrill and urgent voice of Ms. Soon floated over from the direction of the door.

“Is the young master asleep?”

I did not hear any reply and I burrowed deeper into the pillow. Again I heard Ms. Soon’s voice.

“Then why are you all still loitering around? There is still a lot of work to be done before the family comes down for dinner. The party will start soon and yet you all have time enough to chatter like monkeys in a hot spring.”

I could not help but giggle into my pillow softly. Ms. Soon, the housekeeper, had always the unlikely comparisons for the maids in the household. I could almost imagine the red faces of the maids as they rushed down the corridor. The sound of footsteps again receded and after lying for a few minutes on the bed, staring up at the dark ceiling to be sure that the corridor was empty of human presence for the night, I gingerly sat up, propped against the satin pillows. The soft lights from the lit up garden below was visible through the heavy curtains drawn across the tall windows of the room. I bit my lip before slowly balancing myself against the edge of the bed and letting myself down with the help of a satin bed cloth, that hung from one corner, under the quilt. As my feet touched the soft red carpet, I wriggled my toes before scurrying over to the divan under the window and hoisting myself over it. I slowly peeped through a chink in the curtain before pushing a little bit away and staring down at the wonderful party below.

It was like something out of a fairytale, father told me once, where the fairies and the gnomes started to work as soon as the children went to sleep. Smartly suited male servants elegantly glided across the freshly mowed lawns, amidst blooming flower bushes, carrying different types of food and drinks on trays. The fairy lights lit up the entire garden, like multiple fireflies, static in a daze rather than their mad movements across the bushes. I watched entranced as the gong rang to signal the entry of the guests and the servants all in a single file, took up their positions behind the food stalls and the rest vanished into the darkness. All at once, the brightly painted guests began to arrive one by one, the men dressed in fancy suits with bows and coat-tails, puffed up like the partridges that I often saw in the kitchen, before the fancy parties that grand-father organised for the ‘white’ men and the Japanese on occassions. The women were all dressed in evening gowns, their jewels shimmering even as their garish,painted, white faces smiled politely at the servant pouring them a drink. I frowned at these creatures, who were only visible to me during these parties, a complete change from the usual unpainted faces of Ms. Soon and the maids who tended to me and the house. They almost seemed like creatures from a different planet, who came down to earth only during these parties, like the sirens who lure men to their doom in the greek legends that father recounted to me whenever he came back from the shipyard in the evenings. That reminded me that he had not come to see me in a while since Monday and today was Friday evening.

I looked around for father in that crowd. He too must be there. I located grandfather’s corpulent figure , plopped down on one of the chairs, with a drink in his hand, laughing heartily with the other balding men of his age. Grandmother was in the other corner, fingering her pearls across her neck with a look of vapidity,as the woman with her recounted some tale that made her eyes bulge and her mouth open and close as if gasping for breath. Suddenly I started as the orchestra started playing and the audience turned to the grand marble stairway from the building leading to the gardens. And what I saw next was a shock to my entire system.

Father was dressed in a black suit with his thick black hair, oiled back to show his sharp bone structure and strong jawline. He looked stately and harsh, so much different from the grinning father who came to my room wearing an untucked white shirt and trousers with uncombed wet hair, smelling of soap. What was even more shocking was the woman at his side. She was dressed in a sleek evening gown that moulded to her figure and her soft brown hair cascaded down her shoulders. She glittered and shone as she stuck to father’s side, her hand wrapped tightly around father’s forearm. I watched the guests clap enthusiastically as my grandparents made their way to father and the woman. Even as they smiled happily, I could not help but feel a heavy sense of despair and betrayal. As I watched grandmother air-kiss the smiling woman’s cheeks daintily and my grandfather congratulated my father by thumping on his back, I could not help but watch the stony countenance of father as he stared right ahead at some imaginary spot in the trees above. I gripped the curtain in despair as more garishly painted ladies made their way to the couple and congratulated them. It was obvious to me what was happening as the whispers of the past week started making more sense to me. 

“The girl is very much loaded I heard. Some daughter of a banker…”

“I heard he met her at a tea party in England. It was love at first sight…”

“What will happen to that boy? Surely he will not be thrown aside in favour of a new heir born of a more legitimate relationship. After all the young master has a special spot for him, despite the boy being sickly and all…”

The whispers mixed with every night’s dissertions of my mother and my birth outside the nursery door, suddenly started to make sense to me as I slowly got down fro the divan and ran across the room to burrow myself in the bed. I could not see more of that party or else I would be screaming in frustration. Already my throat stung and my eyes hurt from the impending tears at this betrayal by father. Not even once did he tell me about it. I had never talked directly to my grandparents and I did not expect anything of them anyway. My grandmother had made clear her displeasure towards me and it was not like I bore her a great love either. No wonder they had sent me to bed early rather than have me witness this spectacle. I bit into the pillow to stop the violent sobs that wrecked my body. The pain was too great. I had not felt great sadness at the loss of my mother as I had never seen her and she was almost like this gentle looming entity who made her presence felt through pictures in my room and the random whispers that followed me in corridors and the rare party in the mansion. I saw the resemblance in our straight black hair, brown eyes and delicate bone structure but never pondered much over it.

But it was my father who was the centre of my universe. Kind, sympathetic, understanding, smart…he was the father who gave me respite from the awful maids with his wonderful stories of the far-off lands that he visited while studying abroad. He made me laugh and played with me when everybody in the mansion deigned to look at me. He promised me that he and I were comrades and that we would be forever together and no one would come between us. And yet, he could not tell me about this new entity set to enter my life. That woman with her painted lips and silk dress was very much real as myself. I tasted the salt in my tears as I cried myself to sleep. Never would I love and trust my father ever again. 

……..

“Is his temperature showing any signs of abating?”

I fancied that I heard the sound of my father’s gruff voice as the cool wet cloth soothed my skin. I wanted to open my swollen, burning eyes to take a look at him and yet, I kept them tightly shut, the betrayal still bitter in my mind. 

“I am afraid not, my lord. It is very curious since the little master was fine even until yesterday night when the girls put him to bed for the night. And he does not even have a cough or cold as he is prone to when he gets a fever.” 

Ms. Soon sounded worried as I groaned a little at the pain in my body. I felt a larger hand on my head, ruffle my hair. I knew instinctively that it belonged to my father as the fingers smoothing out my hair had a comforting and warm feel to it. Yet today I felt more abhorred than anything by it.

“I shall call Doctor Choi. Do you think he will be in?”

Ms. Soon cleared her throat, “Master Kim…”

There was a heavy silence in the room and I managed to crack my eyes open a bit. My father stood at the door with a conflicted expression on his face, looking at my mother’s picture over the fireplace while Ms. Soon looked as if she would rather jump off a cliff than have this conversation. 

“Ms Soon, I know we have had troubles in the past but then he would not refuse would he knowing who Jeonghan is. If anything, it would help him repay for his sins, knowing what he did helped push his daughter to her grave more than anything else…and I for one, would rather hang myself than see Jeonghan suffer the same fate as his mother…”

The door opened and closed behind him with a bang, leaving me conflicted and worried about the obscurity behind father’s words. My five year old brain was fogged over by the fever and soon I closed my eyes, as the cool towel held against my face, helped me fall asleep. 

……..

I sat demurely on the high-backed chair as I surveyed the lady in front of me. She was dressed in a cream frilly dress and cream pumps on her feet and her brown hair was done up in an elaborate coiffeur, secured with pearls. She wore a string of pearls around her neck and pearl studs and yet all her efforts of beautifying herself was for naught as she was not even half as beautiful as my mother. Her eyes were too slanting and her nose was too long; her smile was too conniving and she was trying too hard. I agreed with Ms. Soon; she was indeed a “pathetic creature”. I stole a glance at my father who stood like a stone statue near the bookshelf of the study room. My grandparents sat on the sofa at the other end of the room. The tension in the room was palpable and very much real. 

She took my hand in her soft ones and I got a whiff of her strong perfume which nearly made me dizzy. I stared back at her as she forced a smile.

“Hello Jeonghan. I am Seohyeon. I will be your new mother. Lets get along well from now on shall we?”

Her voice sounded strained and mechanic as if she had practiced it in front of a mirror before coming to rattle it out before me. I nodded as that was what was expected of me before adding a smile as an afterthought. I could see that the sudden smile startled her and she too smiled back nervously at me. There was no use being hostile. She was going to be my mother whether I liked it ot not. The ordeal of the past two days had drilled it into my head. 

My grandparents nearly jumped off the sofa and twittered happily and rushed over to hug my new ‘mother’. It was as if a wild, blood-thirsty lion fresh from the savannah had been tamed as the tension in the room went down by several notches. I got down from the chair with the help of my new ‘mother’ and was hugged by her; all the while, my father’s gaze following me as if trying to make sense of why I was so pliant all of a sudden. If only he knew…

……..

“I have someone I want you to meet.”

Ms. Soon’s voice startled me and I dropped the Queen’s guard that was brought by my father from England a year back. It was my favourite toy and I felt a bit miffed at the sudden interruption of my precious play time. I looked up to see Ms. Soon at the doorway but what surprised and interested me the most was the young boy with her. He must have been the same age as myself and he seemed to be a little stupid. Yet when he saw me watching him, his cheeks coloured a soft pink and he smiled shyly. His short black hair stuck out at different angles and his eyes were thickly lashed like a girl’s. Ms. Soon gave the boy a slight push and he turned bright red before muttering aloud:

“I am Seungcheol. Pleased to make your acquaintance m..m…master.” He blundered on the last word, making me laugh out loud, startling both Seungcheol and Ms. Soon. A happy flush came over Ms. Soon’s face as he again pushed Seungcheol, this time further into the room before shutting the door behind her. I could almost hear her running down the corridor to tell my father that I laughed out loud after meeting the new boy. But then I was more interested in the newcomer, who now stood awkwardly near the closed door, like a frightened bird, waiting to take flight at the slightest sound. His brown shorts hung loosely off his frame and his white shirt was a size too big for him. He was a tad paler than me. I decided that I liked him.

“I am Jeonghan and you can call me Han.” Till this day, only my father had the privilege to call me that and somehow asking this new boy to call me by that name, reduced the lingering ghost of my father’s betrayal. The name had lost its speciality to an extent. I watched his face light up and he grinned, exposing his pink gums.

“Then you can call me Cheol.” I patted the place next to me on the carpet and Cheol gingerly took his place beside me. I handed him the box of toys beside me. 

“Choose.” I almost ordered him as I held on to the Queen’s guard. He nodded and peered into the box before selecting the emerald green engine which I had got for my fourth birthday. I had never really played with it since it had been quite heavy for me to handle at that time and since then I never had much love for it. But Seungcheol’s eyes glittered with happiness as he beheld the new contraption. 

“You can take it home if you want…” I said nonchalantly, wanting to see his reaction. He coloured a bright red and was quickly going to put it back inside the box when I caught hold of his hand and shook my head.

“It is my gift to you.” he looked at me shocked and with a tincture of happiness, before breaking out into a happy smile. “Thank you.” he whispered softly. Somehow I loved seeing his reactions after being surrounded by stone-faced maids with hidden sneers all day and I wanted to see more. I grinned back at him and somehow that seemed to herald a tentative beginning for our friendship and the love I bore him over the years to come, which saw Seungcheol become an essential part of my life. Yet as we played with my toys that afternoon, none of us could have foreseen the secrets which were hidden from us, which ultimately crashed over us like a huge wave, destroying our purity, innocence and over all our happiness. And yet it all would come in due time and take away everything I ever held dear to me…


End file.
